West Ham put in a solid 95 minutes of hard work to shut out the league leaders away from home for a ‘massive’ one-nil win to bring themselves back into second place in this fast changing Championship league table. The ‘jeopardy’ in this game was all about the result, today’s opponents looking to open up a seven point lead had they beaten Nuno’s men.
In what looked suspiciously like a starting line-up simply designed to keep the opposition from scoring for the first half, Nuno’s team matched their opponents with no quarter given, every feisty tackle being ridden and matched as the Hammers worked their socks off.
None more than Mohamadou Kanté: Another brilliant assist, the fastest, most combative player on the pitch who chased everything and looked an absolute menace to whom Swansea had no answer. Not the most delicate, but where it mattered, Kante blocked, chased, created, ran his socks off and rode a couple of awful tackles well.
This time last year the Frenchman was still residing in the u21’s: Now he looks to be one of the first names on the team sheet and part of a growing ‘spine’ in Nuno’s attack.
Man of the match? Possibly. The difference between the two sides – again, quite possibly. The further forward Nuno uses Kanté, the better he performs. The penny seems to have dropped that he’s no holding midfielder, that’s for sure.
But as a bludgeoning, fast running, aggressive ‘tank‘ of an attacking midfielder, he’s a pretty scary prospect to play against. And he’s just twenty one years old.
Well played, young man. We’ve watched him go from under twenty one ‘prospect’ to a fully fledged first team ‘weapon’ who’s come of age at West Ham. Another year and you’d feel he will be the finished article and will have sides queueing up if the Irons don’t make it back to the top tier.